HOW I MADE IT 40 SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS REVEAL HOW THEY MADE MILLIONS RACHEL BRIDGE 2nd edition

A lot has changed since I wrote the original hardback version of this book five years ago. In that time entrepreneurship has enjoyed an extraordinary rise in visibility and popularity, thanks in part to television programmes such as Dragons’ Den and The Apprentice. A government initiative has even introduced enterprise education into secondary schools. A lot has happened to the entrepreneurs profiled in this book too. Five years ago all of them were running incredibly successful businesses which they had started up with very little money. Five years on, nearly half the 40 entrepreneurs featured in the original book have sold their businesses, in every case for millions of pounds and in some instances for substantially more. There can be few things more life-affirming than throwing off the shackles of paid employment and using your energy and talents to create a business of your own. But as every successful entrepreneur knows, starting up a business from scratch and turning it into a thriving business is actually only half the story. In order to really hit the jackpot ixthe ultimate dream is to sell that business for a substantial sum too. The people in this book have proved decisively that it can be done. Gerry Pack, for example, started up his business Holiday Extras providing airport hotel rooms and parking with just £100. He sold it in 2005 for £43 million. Darren Richards started up his online dating agency DatingDirect. com with £2,500 and sold it just eight years later for £30 million. And Mike Clare, who started up his bed retail business Dreams with £16,000, sold it in 2008 for more than £200 million. So this completely revised and updated paperback edition is in many ways a glorious celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit – of the triumph of hope over negativity, self-belief over self-doubt and proof that following your dream really can lead to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It is a truly incredible achievement to have created something from nothing and then within a few years sold it for a life-changing amount of money. Armed only with a good idea and a great deal of drive and determination these people have single-handedly changed their own destiny and in many cases that of their families, shareholders and employees too